Impeachment lines clearly drawn in Mississippi

Both Mississippi Senators Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith voted on Friday to not subpoena witnesses or compel further documents in the Impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

“The articles of impeachment passed by the House do not allege a crime or any offense that warrants the removal of a duly-elected president,” Sen. Wicker said in a statement following the vote. “We have heard arguments from both sides through a fair process. It is now time to conclude this trial and get back to work for the American people.”

For her part, Sen. Hyde-Smith has called the Impeachment trial a “great American tragedy,” and said the impeachment process should not be used as a tool or a toy.

“It’s pretty discouraging to think you have elected members that would vote for impeachment based on what they have in these articles,” Hyde-Smith told Y’all Politics last week.

In 2018, Democrats Mike Espy and David Baria lost their races for U.S. Senate in Mississippi.  Espy was defeated by Republican Hyde-Smith with a 53.6% to 46.4% margin in the special election to replace Thad Cochran, while Baria lost to Republican Wicker 58.5% to 39.5%.

Espy is now running again for the U.S. Senate, and while he has Primary challengers in March, he is the likely Democratic nominee to face Hyde-Smith in the November General Election.

His campaign issued a statement following the Senate vote saying that if he were representing Mississippi he would have voted to continue the trial and call witnesses.

“Let me be clear: If I had been in the U.S. Senate, I would have voted for a fair and full trial where witnesses and documents would have been heard,” Espy said.  He went on to say the “impeachment charges against the President are too serious not too.”

Espy accused Hyde-Smith of breaking her oath of being an impartial juror, saying her “loyalty and her oaths are only to her party bosses and her partisan ambitions.”

Baria, a former state senator and a former minority leader in the Mississippi House of Representatives, also spoke out saying if he and Espy had won in 2018 “America would get to hear Ambassador John Bolton testify.”

Imagine this: if @MikeEspyMS and I had won in MS in 2018 America would get to hear @AmbJohnBolton testify. Elections have consequences and we have one this year. #2020election

— David Baria (@dbaria) February 2, 2020

Congressman Bennie Thompson (MS-02), Mississippi’s lone Democratic member of its federal delegation, voted in the U.S. House to impeach the President and said in a tweet Friday, “Trump’s acquittal is imminent because this wasn’t a real trial begin with.”

He followed that up with the claim that the trial was fake, and that Republican Senators were concerned about keeping their jobs.

GOP senators were more concerned with keeping their jobs than doing their jobs. #FakeTrial

— Bennie G. Thompson (@BennieGThompson) February 2, 2020

Mississippi’s other Congressmen – Steven Palazzo (MS-04), Trent Kelly (MS-01), and Michael Guest (MS-03) – all Republicans, voted against the articles of impeachment.

Mississippi overwhelmingly voted for Trump in the 2016 election, with the President winning the Republican Primary and then defeating Hillary Clinton in General Election in the Magnolia State gaining 57.9% to 40% of the vote.

President Trump is scheduled to deliver the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening.

The U.S. Senate is slated to take up the vote to acquit the President on Wednesday.  Senators Wicker and Hyde-Smith have indicated that they will vote to acquit President Trump.